Mark Chien first encountered wine while traveling in Europe during high school and college. He then studied in the graduate viticulture program at UC-Davis, where he worked at Amador Foothill Winery and and the UC research vineyards in Davis and Oakville. He was vineyard manager at Pindar Vineyards on Long Island for three years before moving to Oregon, where he managed Temperance Hill Vineyard in the Eola Hill from 1985 to 1999. He then returned to the East where he served as extension viticulturist at Penn State University from 2000 to 2014. In May he joined the Oregon Wine Research Institute as its program coordinator, where he helps to facilitate research, education and communication for the improvement of all Oregon wines. He is based in Corvallis.